Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A songbird (Luscinia megarhynchos) of Eurasia and Africa with reddish-brown plumage, noted for the melodious song of the male during the breeding season, most often heard at night.
- noun Any of various other songbirds of the genus Luscinia.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small sylviine bird of Europe, Asia, and Africa, belonging to the order Passeres, the suborder Oscines, the family Sylviidæ, and the genus Daulias.
- noun Some bird which sings sweetly and hence is likened to or mistaken for a nightingale.
- noun A sort of flannel scarf, with sleeves, designed to be worn by persons confined to bed. It was largely used by the sick and wounded in the Franco-German war, 1870–1.
- noun A title popularly given to Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish singer.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A small, plain, brown and gray European song bird (
Luscinia megarhynchos syn.Luscinia luscinia ). It sings at night, and is celebrated for the sweetness of its song. - noun (Zoöl.) A larger species (
Lucinia philomela ), of Eastern Europe, having similar habits; the thrush nightingale. The name is also applied to other allied species. - noun (Zoöl.) See
Blackcap , n., 1 (a).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A European
songbird ,Luscinia megarhynchos, of the familyTurdidae .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun English nurse remembered for her work during the Crimean War (1820-1910)
- noun European songbird noted for its melodious nocturnal song
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Now we own that what there is so _indecorous_ in the first comparison, or so especially _decorous_ in the second, we cannot discover; neither can we make out whether Pope is the organ or the bell -- the nightingale or the cuckoo; we suppose that Mr. Hunt knows that Pope was called by his contemporaries the _nightingale_, but we never heard Milton and
Famous Reviews R. Brimley Johnson 1899
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He sends his courtiers to take a nightingale from the nearby forest and present her as a guest at court.
Archive 2008-08-01 The Nag 2008
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Voiture, in his thirty-fifth letter to Costar, compliments the musical atom of Marini, the feathered voice, the living breath clothed in plumage, the winged song, the small spirit of harmony, hidden amidst diminutive lungs; all of which terms are employed to convey the word nightingale:
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Among all those who surround the sick mother and who hope for her recovery, only the old blind grandfather notices furtive and sliding steps in the garden where the cyprus trees are beginning to rustle and where the nightingale is hushed; he feels a cold breeze pass, he hears a scythe being whetted, he reckons that someone invisible to the others has entered to sit in their circle.
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In the first place, he sings more or less the whole year round, and never deserts his native fields, while the nightingale is only in voice for a few weeks in May and June.
Rural Hours 1887
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But after our Father and the Old Squire went to law, Mother told us we must be content with hearing the nightingale from a distance.
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A lad warbling in his throat, at his highest and loudest scream, in imitation of a nightingale, is the perfection of vocal music, which they will listen to with pleasure for hours, and beguile the longest day's journey with the same dulcet strains.
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Now my voice has lost its melting music, and he sends his accomplice to leave the mute 'nightingale' -- how often he has called me so!
Complete Project Gutenberg Georg Ebers Works Georg Ebers 1867
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Now my voice has lost its melting music, and he sends his accomplice to leave the mute 'nightingale' -- how often he has called me so!
Barbara Blomberg — Volume 07 Georg Ebers 1867
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Now my voice has lost its melting music, and he sends his accomplice to leave the mute 'nightingale' -- how often he has called me so!
Barbara Blomberg — Complete Georg Ebers 1867
sionnach commented on the word nightingale
Nightingales are so named because they frequently sing at night as well as during the day. The name has been used for well over 1,000 years, being highly recognizable even in its Anglo-Saxon form - 'nihtingale'. It means 'night songstress'. Early writers assumed the female sang; in fact, it is the male. Its song is loud, with an impressive range of whistles, trills and gurgles, and is particularly noticeable at night because few other birds are singing.
October 6, 2007
knitandpurl commented on the word nightingale
"But her words remained so indistinct and the sound which was all that I caught was prolonged so sweetly and seemed to me so musical that it was as if, among the dim branches of the trees, a nightingale had begun to sing."
-- Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, pp 537-538 of the Modern Library paperback edition
April 26, 2008
bilby commented on the word nightingale
A little message from the nightingale for you all, right here.
July 6, 2008
gangerh commented on the word nightingale
Cute, bilby.
July 6, 2008
frindley commented on the word nightingale
Pronunciation survey – Do you say:
1. Nigh-ting-gale
2. Nigh-tin-gale
?
October 12, 2008
skipvia commented on the word nightingale
More like NIGHT n gale.
October 12, 2008
reesetee commented on the word nightingale
Same here, more or less. :-)
October 14, 2008
rolig commented on the word nightingale
I say No. 1: NIGHTing-gale. Definitely with a nasal "ng" sound in the middle, followed by a voiced velar stop ("g").
October 14, 2008